Art collector and investor Leon Black has agreed to pay $62.5 million to the US Virgin Islands, to settle all claims related to his involvement with sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein.
Jeffrey Epstein, a prominent financier at the time, was first accused in 2019 of trafficking women on his personal island on the US Virgin Islands. More than 200 women came forward with allegations of sex trafficking and being personally abused by him. But soon after his arrest in July, Epstein committed suicide in his cell in August 2019. In November last year, after a lengthy court battle, the US Virgin Islands reached a $105 million settlement with the Epstein estate.
Leon Black is a known private equity investor who had paid $158 million to Epstein for various tax and real estate management. After an investigation that lasted for three years, the two parties came to a settlement that would exonerate Black from any charges of sex trafficking linked with Epstein. After two days of mediation, it was announced on Friday that Black would pay $62.5 million to the Virgin Islands. The court made it clear that the settlement would not implicate Black as guilty in any way, nor would it protect him from settlement claims from other parties.
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A prominent art collector in New York circles, Leon Black is perhaps best known for owning Edward Munch’s The Scream. Black was also the chairman of the Museum of Modern Art since 2018. In 2021, however, allegations of sexual misconduct were laid against him which forced him to step down from the museum leadership. He also had to step down from Apollo Global Management, the investment firm he co-founded in 1990.
